Kidneygate doctor dies on vacation

December 27, 2013 4:51 PM

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Friday 27 December 2013 15:48

A Durban surgeon, Dr Mahadev Naidoo, who was involved in a cash-for-kidneys scam by performing illegal transplant operations at Netcare's St Augustine's Hospital in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, has died while on a family holiday in the Seychelles.

Naidoo was with his wife and two daughters when he passed away.

Naidoo and three other doctors were charged with fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud and contravention of the Human Tissues Act for performing illegal operations between 2000 and 2003.

However, the charges were withdrawn in the Durban High Court in December 2012 after a judge found the surgeons had their right to a fair trial infringed after a seven-and-a-half-year delay in bringing the matter to trial.

The surgeons, John Robbs, Ariff Haffejee, Neil Christopher and Naidoo claimed malicious and selective prosecution. They said doctors who performed illegal transplants for the Netcare Hospital Group in Cape Town and Johannesburg had not been charged.

Netcare paid a R7 million fine for admitting its guilt in the scam, which sold kidneys to wealthy Israeli patients.

Friends, colleagues and family have taken to social media sites such as Facebook to share their memories and to convey sympathies to Naidoo's family.